Moving into second semester, Sheboygan South High School has made a few adjustments to its library rules and lunch schedule to better accommodate flexible modular scheduling.

As previously reported by the Sheboygan Press, the school is pioneering “flex mod” for the district. This means students' class schedules are broken into 15-minute increments, or "mods," that can be manipulated into anywhere from 30- to 75-minute class periods, depending on what teachers and administrators deem necessary for the subject.

This differs from traditional school schedules that are composed of seven, 50-minute class periods.

The change was implemented this school year and has resulted in more 10-minute or longer breaks or “study halls” between classes for some students, which administrators believe is positive in that it allows “a gradual release of responsibility.” But, it was necessary to establish new rules when students started congregating in the library during downtime.

“Our library lost its focus of being a library; it became a really popular place for our kids to hang out when they had a 10-minute layover and didn’t want to walk down to the commons area just to turn around and walk back to class,” said Associate Principal Kevin Formolo. “The supervision was more difficult and it became a little taxing.”

The South High student newspaper, LakeBreeze, described the previous state of the library as a reflection of “the hectic nature of Flex Mod. People would stream in and out, and it was quite chaotic. Food was strewn across the floor (and) tables and chairs were astray.”

However, the library is back to a quiet, controlled atmosphere following a new rule that students must have a permanent or temporary pass to use the library.

It is also expected that students demonstrate a learning objective for their visit to the library and will adhere to new rules such as not using cellphones and refraining from sleeping in it.

Librarian Mariya Grabow believes the library has become “an academic environment again” since the changes. She said the new system is not necessarily permanent as students relearn the purpose of the library.

“I think we will eventually feel comfortable with everyone just checking in and out,” Grabow said.

The school has not experienced traffic problems in any other area of the school besides the library.

Prior to the library adjustments, South High already had a system in place where students struggling in their studies would have a guided study hall to receive help with academics. The library and commons area are considered privilege study halls for students performing well in classes.

Formolo said the school is still working to help satisfactory students manage their unstructured downtime. The school hopes to direct more students to the resource periods, which allow teens to stop in and study or work one-on-one with a teacher in a specific subject.

He also wants to implement programming that helps give students ideas about what they can do with even 10-minutes of downtime, such as organizing their binders or dropping books off at their lockers.

Another recent adjustment was carving out a specific lunch period for all grade levels because some students were hard-pressed to fit lunch into their schedules prior to the change.

Finally, the school is also working to decrease the amount of class conflicts under the new schedule. One perk of flex mod is that students can work with teachers to take two classes where there is some overlap; in a traditional schedule, the student would be forced to choose between the courses.

Despite some of the necessary tweaks, Formolo and Principal Michael Trimberger, Jr., feel the new schedule is working well and share that enrollment is steady.

They note how teachers have enjoyed collaborating under flex mod, which often sees multiple teachers instructing during lectures and then breaking the large class into small groups for discussion-based meetings with one teacher later in the week.

The schedule also allows for more academic intervention in the form of resource periods and guided study halls between classes for the students who need it. For students who are performing well, they have the privilege and responsibility of managing their own downtime under the new model.

“Now that we’re starting to get comfortable with the schedule, students are seeing that this is more freeing and there’s more responsibility, and with that also comes more opportunity,” Trimberger said. “With the traditional schedule, you’re shuffled off to the next class as soon as the bell rings, but here you’re treated more like an adult.”